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This site is a member of WebRing. To browse visit here. Tuesday, August 02, 2005 "He voted me" Not to be outdone by Florida, Virginia has its own developing story of incestuous political relationships.Joel Branscome, special prosecutor for a Scott County, Virginia, case of vote fraud, says, "It's a new phrase that I am still trying to find a definition for-'He voted me.'"Some Gate City, Virginia, voters told a state police investigator that they "were voted" by former Gate City mayor Charles Dougherty in his bid for re-election in May 2004, meaning, it is alleged, that he either induced them to vote for him, or actually marked their ballots for them.Dougherty was removed from office after his opponent, Mark Jenkins, challenged the election results in court. Dougherty received 138 of the 158 absentee ballots cast, some of which gave suspiciously similar reasons for why the voter was unable to appear in person. They were afflicted, they said, with "crippling arthrism" [sic]. Even the number of absentee ballots itself—approximately 20 percent of the total votes cast—has given rise to questions. Counties of similar size and voter makeup in Virginia typically have about three percent absentee voting.The charges against Dougherty include both "aiding and abetting" in violation of the absentee ballot process (that presumably includes the allegations of 'he voted me'), and also charges of making false statements on absentee ballot applications (that would include the multiple instances of "crippling arthrism").What makes this more than just another case of small town corruption is that the Scott County registrar is Willie Mae Kilgore, mother of the Republican gubernatorial candidate, Jerry Kilgore. Mrs. Kilgore has already been accused in another lawsuit of running the registrar's office in a 'partisan' manner. Among other things (in an eerie echo of Florida's voting fiasco), she removed the wife of a town council candidate from the voting rolls [CORRECTION -- it was the wife of a candidate for Scott County Sheriff], saying that the woman was a felon and ineligible to vote. Her response to the Dougherty case was essentially that she couldn't be held responsible for what voters put on their absentee ballot applications. The Roanoke Times article from which most of my comments are drawn says:In an interview in February, Willie Mae Kilgore said it is the voter's responsibility to be truthful on absentee ballot applications. As registrar, Kilgore said, she must take their word for why they cannot vote in person. Kilgore has not been implicated in the charges against Dougherty, but folk, that excuse went out of style at Nuremburg. If she'd said she hadn't personally reviewed all the absentee ballot applications, I'd have accepted that. Scott County, like all its small rural neighbors in Virginia, has an Assistant Registrar to help with the paperwork. But to say that she had to take on faith a voter's reason for wanting an absentee ballot suggests that she knew she would be guilty of perjury if she claimed no knowledge of the identically mis-spelled applications.The Kilgore family has been something of a dynastic presence in Scott County government. John Kilgore, Willie's husband, is the long-time chairman of the Scott County Republican Party. Jerry Kilgore's twin brother Terry is the state delegate for Wise and Scott Counties, and Mrs. Kilgore's sister, Betty Pendleton, worked as a clerk in the registrar's office. The Economic Development office is headed by John Kilgore, Jr., Willie Kilgore's third son. No political dynasty lasts forever, of course, and Scott County has shown signs recently of rebelling against the Kilgore clan. The Kilgores, predictably, fought back. When the Board of Supervisors eliminated Pendleton's position, Terry Kilgore accused the board of carrying on a vendetta against his family. Willie Kilgore protested that there had been three people in the registrar's office "for decades." What neither of them owned up to is that there were originally just two people in the Scott County registrar's office: Mrs. Kilgore as Registrar and her sister as Assistant Registrar. A 1980 state law made it illegal for members of the same family to serve as both Registrar and Assistant Registrar in the same county—whereupon, Ms. Kilgore created a new position of clerk-typist, installed her sister in that position, and hired a third person to be the Assistant Registrar. So yes, there have been three people in the Scott County Registrar's office for decades. But one of them was there only because her sister had the power to create a job for her, at tax-payers' expense.If anyone wants to know how Jerry Kilgore is likely to run the state of Virginia, I suggest they look at how his family has been running Scott County. posted by Liz @ 9:14 PM | The template is set to display 10 posts. To see all the posts for this month, click on the month name in the Archive section RSS Feed PERSONAL Send email toliz at life-as-a-spectator-sport.com Home I'm a mother, grandmother, a computer professional, Democrat, Christian. I welcome politely worded comments and email, my spam filter throws the rest away, so don't bother to flame me WHY 'LIFE AS A SPECTATOR SPORT' "If you're lucky not to live in the gutters of a slum, but still can't afford to take vacations in the Alps, you're part of that enormous middle class who lives life through the medium of the television, further separated from "real" life by air conditioner, by automobile, by dishwasher, microwave and ice-in-the-door refrigerator, by automatic washer and dryer, and all the other appliances and conveniences that make it possible for America to live life at second hand. I'm not sure why Americans decided that televised drama was better than the real thing, that cardboard microwave food containers were an adequate substitute for real dishes, and their contents for real food, or that cooking, dishwashing and face-to-face conversation wasn't worth the effort and time it required. Someone fed this nation a plastic crate of out-of-season tomatoes and told us it was life and we took them at their word, and we're so much the poorer for it that it's hard to know where to start to list the shortcomings." I wrote this a couple of years ago, but I have to admit it's much less amusing than I thought it would be to see the artifical construct falling apart. 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Not to be outdone by Florida, Virginia has its own developing story of incestuous political relationships.Joel Branscome, special prosecutor for a Scott County, Virginia, case of vote fraud, says, "It's a new phrase that I am still trying to find a definition for-'He voted me.'"Some Gate City, Virginia, voters told a state police investigator that they "were voted" by former Gate City mayor Charles Dougherty in his bid for re-election in May 2004, meaning, it is alleged, that he either induced them to vote for him, or actually marked their ballots for them.Dougherty was removed from office after his opponent, Mark Jenkins, challenged the election results in court. Dougherty received 138 of the 158 absentee ballots cast, some of which gave suspiciously similar reasons for why the voter was unable to appear in person. They were afflicted, they said, with "crippling arthrism" [sic]. Even the number of absentee ballots itself—approximately 20 percent of the total votes cast—has given rise to questions. Counties of similar size and voter makeup in Virginia typically have about three percent absentee voting.The charges against Dougherty include both "aiding and abetting" in violation of the absentee ballot process (that presumably includes the allegations of 'he voted me'), and also charges of making false statements on absentee ballot applications (that would include the multiple instances of "crippling arthrism").What makes this more than just another case of small town corruption is that the Scott County registrar is Willie Mae Kilgore, mother of the Republican gubernatorial candidate, Jerry Kilgore. Mrs. Kilgore has already been accused in another lawsuit of running the registrar's office in a 'partisan' manner. Among other things (in an eerie echo of Florida's voting fiasco), she removed the wife of a town council candidate from the voting rolls [CORRECTION -- it was the wife of a candidate for Scott County Sheriff], saying that the woman was a felon and ineligible to vote. Her response to the Dougherty case was essentially that she couldn't be held responsible for what voters put on their absentee ballot applications. The Roanoke Times article from which most of my comments are drawn says:In an interview in February, Willie Mae Kilgore said it is the voter's responsibility to be truthful on absentee ballot applications. As registrar, Kilgore said, she must take their word for why they cannot vote in person. Kilgore has not been implicated in the charges against Dougherty, but folk, that excuse went out of style at Nuremburg. If she'd said she hadn't personally reviewed all the absentee ballot applications, I'd have accepted that. Scott County, like all its small rural neighbors in Virginia, has an Assistant Registrar to help with the paperwork. But to say that she had to take on faith a voter's reason for wanting an absentee ballot suggests that she knew she would be guilty of perjury if she claimed no knowledge of the identically mis-spelled applications.The Kilgore family has been something of a dynastic presence in Scott County government. John Kilgore, Willie's husband, is the long-time chairman of the Scott County Republican Party. Jerry Kilgore's twin brother Terry is the state delegate for Wise and Scott Counties, and Mrs. Kilgore's sister, Betty Pendleton, worked as a clerk in the registrar's office. The Economic Development office is headed by John Kilgore, Jr., Willie Kilgore's third son. No political dynasty lasts forever, of course, and Scott County has shown signs recently of rebelling against the Kilgore clan. The Kilgores, predictably, fought back. When the Board of Supervisors eliminated Pendleton's position, Terry Kilgore accused the board of carrying on a vendetta against his family. Willie Kilgore protested that there had been three people in the registrar's office "for decades." What neither of them owned up to is that there were originally just two people in the Scott County registrar's office: Mrs. Kilgore as Registrar and her sister as Assistant Registrar. A 1980 state law made it illegal for members of the same family to serve as both Registrar and Assistant Registrar in the same county—whereupon, Ms. Kilgore created a new position of clerk-typist, installed her sister in that position, and hired a third person to be the Assistant Registrar. So yes, there have been three people in the Scott County Registrar's office for decades. But one of them was there only because her sister had the power to create a job for her, at tax-payers' expense.If anyone wants to know how Jerry Kilgore is likely to run the state of Virginia, I suggest they look at how his family has been running Scott County.
In an interview in February, Willie Mae Kilgore said it is the voter's responsibility to be truthful on absentee ballot applications. As registrar, Kilgore said, she must take their word for why they cannot vote in person.
The template is set to display 10 posts. To see all the posts for this month, click on the month name in the Archive section
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PERSONAL
WHY 'LIFE AS A SPECTATOR SPORT'
"If you're lucky not to live in the gutters of a slum, but still can't afford to take vacations in the Alps, you're part of that enormous middle class who lives life through the medium of the television, further separated from "real" life by air conditioner, by automobile, by dishwasher, microwave and ice-in-the-door refrigerator, by automatic washer and dryer, and all the other appliances and conveniences that make it possible for America to live life at second hand. I'm not sure why Americans decided that televised drama was better than the real thing, that cardboard microwave food containers were an adequate substitute for real dishes, and their contents for real food, or that cooking, dishwashing and face-to-face conversation wasn't worth the effort and time it required. Someone fed this nation a plastic crate of out-of-season tomatoes and told us it was life and we took them at their word, and we're so much the poorer for it that it's hard to know where to start to list the shortcomings." I wrote this a couple of years ago, but I have to admit it's much less amusing than I thought it would be to see the artifical construct falling apart.
THE NON-ELECTRIC HOME
Cleaning, 1 Cleaning, 2 Cleaning, 3
KNITTING BLOGS
Extravayarnza Knitting Heretic Mind of Winter Pie Knits Persistent Illusion See Eunny Knit The Keyboard Biologist Taleweaver's Ramblings TECHnitting Wendy Knits
FINISHED PROJECTS
SELF-RELIANCE AND THE FUTURE
POLITICAL BLOGS and SITES
BOOKS I'M READING
How to Grow More Vegetables, etc. Small Scale Grain Raising
ARCHIVES
February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 August 2008 July 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002 February 2002
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